Metal bands of this type are in particular used in the automotive sector as inlays for sealing strips to seal openings of the engine compartment, trunk or door. The continuously produced metal bands are jacketed by rubber and/or flexible plastic and have slots in order, among other things, to permit a penetration of the sealing material with metal bands not coated with an adhesive means, since the adhesion of rubber to metal or plastic to metal is not possible. On the other hand, metal bands coated with an adhesive means are very expensive. The metal bands can be advantageously manufactured by rotary cutting of the slots and be expanded by subsequent rolling of the metal band, namely without waste and at a high production speed.
Before or after the jacketing with the sealing material, the metal bands are bent to a usually U-shaped clamping section, which is clamped onto the sealing flanges of the opening. To allow the contours of the opening to be followed in this process, the clamping section must usually be flexible both in the horizontal and in the vertical plane. In addition, the clamping section should be compressible in the longitudinal direction, since the openings to be sealed can have substantial peripheral tolerances and a cutting to length of the sealing strip on site would be extremely time-consuming and/or expensive. Sealing strips having a compressible clamping section can namely preferably be produced endlessly to the maximum length which occurs and be compressed to the actual length on installation. Bonding or vulcanizing these sealing strips together or the like therefore does not have to take place on site so that the sealing strip installation can also be carried out by robots.
On the other hand, the clamping section must also have a specific tensile strength, since the trim strips or sealing strips are usually manufactured by extrusion, with substantial forces occurring in the longitudinal direction of the band. A further requirement of the clamping section consists of exerting a clamping force which is as large as possible on the sealing flanges.